Pan Fried Cheese Pie (Plăcinte) From Moldova

Moldovan Entree

PAN FRIED CHEESE PIE
(Plăcinte)

INGREDIENTS

4 cups flour (9 tablespoons more later)
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk
¾ cup milk
1 egg
½ tablespoon dill
4 cups cheese (combination of feta, farmer’s cheese*, ricotta, or Moldovan cow cheese*
9 tablespoons flour (1½ tablespoons per pie)
⅔ cup vegetable oil

* = Can be found in ethnic or specialized supermarkets or online.
** = As far as I found out, you have to go to Moldova for this. Bon voyage.

Serves 6. Takes 1 hour 30 minutes.

PREPARATION

Add 4 cups flour, baking soda, and salt to large mixing bowl. Mix with fork or whisk until well blended. Add buttermilk, milk, and egg. Knead until soft dough ball forms. Split dough balls into 6 smaller dough balls. Brush oil onto dough balls. Let sit for 30 minutes.

While the 6 dough balls sit, add dill and cheese to medium mixing bowl. Mix with fork until well blended. Dust rolling pin with ½ tablespoon flour. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour onto flat surface. Flatten dough ball with rolling pin, or hands, on flat surface until it is ⅛” thick. Add 1/6th of cheese mix (about ⅔ cup) to center of flattened dough ball. Fold in edges until they meet in the middle. Pinch edges together to form a seal. This is the cheese pie. Repeat for each dough ball.

Add oil to pan. Heat at low-medium heat until a bit of dough starts to dance in the oil. Add cheese pie to pan. Deep fry at low-medium heat for 4 minutes or until bottom of cheese pie turns golden brown. Carefully flip over cheese pie. Deep fry for 4 minutes more or until new bottom becomes golden brown. Repeat for each cheese pie. (Deep frying times will decrease with each pie.) Place on plate and pat dry with paper towel.

TIDBITS

1) We know the universe expands at an ever increasing rate as far-off stars display a red shift. If the Plăcinte on your stove shows such a shift, then it’s accelerating away from you at near-light speed. Plan on getting takeout. But, if the Plăcinte looks bluish, it’s coming at you just as quick. Duck!

Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook,  Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on  amazon.com.